Door seal construction



Sept. 19, 1957 E- R. TYLISZ noon SEAL CONSTRUCTION 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 7, .1965

INVENTOR EUGENE R. TYLISZ w ww umaw.

ATTORNEY El. YLjfiZ DOOR SEAL- OIJSTHUCTi'IUN 2 Sheets-Sheet Sept. 19, 367

Filed April 7, 1965 FIG. 7

INVENTOR EUGENE R. TYLISZ B Z Mfl/Z i 15 ATTORNEY United States Patent Filed Apr. 7, 1965, Ser. No. 446,165 3 Claims. (Cl. 49-485) This invention relates generally to seals and more particularly to an improved door seal construction.

Shipment of perishable goods by land, sea or air generally requires insulation of the vehicle, ship or aircraft to maintain that portion of the interior thereof in which the goods are stored at a temperature compatible with the goods being shipped. In the case of land vehicles, for example, the thermal intergrity of the doors leading into refrigerated compartments must be maintained over relatively long periods of time incident to travel between distant points.

The improved door seal construction of the instant invention reduces materially heat transfer between the interior of an insulated enclosure and the ambient environment. Although the instant invention is disclosed herein in a single embodiment in reference to its application to the closure doors of a land trailer vehicle, it will be apparent to persons skilled in the art as the description proceeds that it is readily applicable to many different transport types, whether land, sea or air, in which closure means is required for maintaining the thermal integrity of one or more interior compartments, as aforesaid.

A door seal construction in accordance with the invention comprises a relatively deep and Wide compressible sealing element having an operating surface configuration of such a design as to be capable of substantial flexure upon the impact of a striker member, such as a door jamb, so as to conform to the door jamb or other striker member in such a manner as to provide one or more areas of sealing contact. In the embodiments of my invention disclosed herein, for example, I provide either two or three spaced points or lines of sealing contact with the door jamb, or a continuous wide surface area of sealing contact, depending upon the configuration of the door jamb with which the flexible sealing element cooperates. The compressible element returns to its original non-flexed configuration upon opening of the doors. The sealing element is of such unique design as to provide excellent sealing characteristics, whether compressed by a door jamb or other striker member to cooperate therewith in any one of the aforesaid three relationships. The sealing element has associated therewith a tough, deformable outer skin to preclude tearing and abrasion thereof.

An important object of the present invention is to provide an improved door seal construction.

Another object of the invention is to provide a flexible sealing element having such a configuration as to be sealingly conformable in different ways to a plurality of differently related door jarnbs.

Another object is to provide a door seal construction capable of sealing a door jamb, or other member operable therewith, even though damage to the door jamb or to portions of the sealing element has occurred.

A further object is to provide an improved configuration of a door seal, which allows, within limits, mislocation of striker elements cooperable therewith.

Other objects, advantages and features of the instant invention will become apparent in the following detailed disclosure, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view taken from the rear end of a refrigerated highway trailer unit in which trailer doors which embody my invention are shown in an open position;

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FIGURE 2 is a broken away sectional view taken along line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIGURE 3 is a broken away sectional view taken across the vertical sealed edges of the doors of FIG. 1 when the doors are closed;

FIGURE 4 is a partial sectional view showing in perspective the sealing door edge construction of the right-hand door section shown in FIG. 3;

FIGURES 5 and 6 are broken away sectional views showing the operation of the door seal construction adjacent the vertical jamb portion of the trailer to which the door is hinged; and

FIGURES 7 and 8 are views similar to FIG. 6 wherein the deformation of the sealing element is shown in relationship to two trailer jamb members which have been inaccurately located in the construction of the trailer.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, a highway trailer vehicle is shown generally at numeral 10. It provides a refrigerated compartment 12 adapted to be insulated at the rear end thereof from the ambient environment by a pair of hinged doors 14 and 16 with which the seal construction of the present invention is associated. The seal construction extends continuously along three sides of door 14, viz, the upper and lower edges and the vertical hinged edge, and continuously around the entire periphery of door 16. The outer vertical edge of door 14 comprises a striker 18 which forms a seal with the corresponding vertical sealing edge 19 of door 16 when the doors are closed, as shown in FIG. 3. The trailer frame includes a rectangular jarnb 20 mounted in the trailer to form the outer periphery of the rear trailer opening, which j'amb cooperates with the three sided seal construction of door 14 and the remaining three sides of the sealing element of the door 16 when the doors are closed, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. The doors are pivotally supported for rotation with the respect to the door frame 22 on hinges 24, and include latches 26 mounted on opposite ends of rotatable rods 27, located on each door, which latches are adapted to engage upper and lower pairs of complementary latch members 28 when the doors are closed and rods 27 are rotated.

Each of the doors is preferably provided with front and rear spaced surface members 30 and 32 of, for example, plywood, spacer frame members 34 which extend peripherally of the rear surface member 32 and are connected to the front and rear surface members by a plurality of bolts 36 forming an air space 38 between the front and rear surface members which may, if desired, be filled with an insulating material. A corner section 40 is formed around the entire periphery of door 16 and around the aforesaid three sides of door 14 between the outer surface of peripheral frame members 34 and the inner surface of frontal member 30 in order to provide a recess for the reception of the corner and adjacent side portions of a sealing element 42, to be described. An outer flexible sealing member 44 having the configuration best illustrated in FIG. 4 is suitably attached to the outer corner of the frontal surfaces of the doors and extends around the entire peripheries of doors 14 and 16 for providing a flexible outer seal member engaging frame 22 around the entire periphery thereof when the doors are closed, and also engaging each other along the adjacent vertical edges of the doors when closed, as shown in FIG. 3.

The :sealing element 42 comprises a relatively deep and wide element 46 of, for example, polyurethane foam, having an outer tough, flexible skin 48 of, for example, polyvinyl chloride. Outer skin 48 is preferably secured to element 46 by a suitable surface glue and includes an outwardly extending flap 50 Which is secured between frame member 34 and the rear surface of member 32, and a flap 52 secured between outer seal member 44 and the edge of member 30. In manufacture, the flexible element 46 is formed to provide a cut-out forward corner portion having the configuration illustrated to provide in non-deformed position a pair of spaced projections 54 forming with connecting base portion 56, a recess 58, the base portion 56 of the recess extending outwardly along rounded corner portions 60 to provide the generally S and reverse S-shaped boundaries of the recess 58. The flexible outer skin 48 of the sealing element is formed to conform to the aforesaid configuration of flexible element 46 so that the sealing element of assembly 42 appears as in FIG. 4, for example, when assembled in the corner section 40 peripherally of each of the doors when the doors are open and the sealing element is in an unflexed condition, Flexible element 46 is preferably not separately secured to the adjacent surfaces of frame member 34 and frontal surface 30. The construction of doors 14 and 16 is such that when the seal assembly 42 is mounted in the recessed corner section 40 of the doors and door jamb 26 is properly located, closure of the doors effects insulated sealing thereof around the entire door jamb.

In FIG. 3 wherein is shown the relationship of the inner vertical door edges when closed and sealed, sealing flaps 44 overlap in abutting relation while projecting corner portion 18 of door 14 contacts and deforms adjacent sealing element 42 as shown. Considerable manufacturing tolerance is allowed in a direction horizontally transverse of the doors insofar as the location of the vertical sealing edges 18 and 19 is concerned. In this respect, note the vertical air space 60 provided between the adjacent closed edges of the door. Because of the relative positions of the vertical door edges as shown in FIG. 3, striker edge 18 of the door 14 contacts the outer skin portion 56 of the seal at a location offset inwardly toward the trailer from the vertical center plane of the recess 58, so that the sealing means 42 is deformed to provide continuous sealing surface contact with the inner corner portion of striker edge 18, as shown. If desired, the doors can be mounted to close so that striker 18 contacts the diagonal skin portion 56 near the center vertical plane thereof so that three point sealing contact is effected, as seen in cross-section in FIG. 6, for example.

Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6, operation of the outer vertical sealing edge of the door 14 is illustrated as the door is closed from a partially open position in FIG. 5 into sealing relationship with the left-hand vertical edge portion of jamb 20, as viewed in FIG. 1. The outer sealing flap 44 is shown in FIG, 6 in sealing relationship with the left-hand vertical member of frame 22 along the surface 62 and at point 64. Sealing means 42 is deformed by the corner portion 66 of jamb 20 from the configuration shown in FIG. 5 to that shown in FIG. 6 as the corner or striker portion 66 engages approximately the center vertical plane of biased skin portion 56, whereby to force both projecting portions 54 inwardly toward one another forming dead air insulating spaces 68 and engaging the vertical transversely related surface portions of jamb 26 along the entire length of projecting portions 54 of the sealing means. It will be noted that with the sealing means in the position shown in FIG. 6, sealing contact is effected along three vertical or horizontal, as the case may be, spaced and independent lines or surface areas of the sealing means 42, including the sealing surface areas provided by projections 54 and the sealing surface area extending around striker corner 66. The sealing means 42 literally wraps itself, in effect, around jamb 20 to provide said three surface sealing areas when the jamb strikes and deforms sealing means 42 approximately centrally of recess 58.

My sealing construction has many advantages, included among which is the inherent adaptability thereof to conform to and seal a variety of door jamb configurations. For example, frequently in practice the door jamb corner structure 66 of the trailer'may be seriously damaged during loading and unloading of material in and from the trailer, as indicated by the irregular broken line 70 in FIG. 6, in which event two area contact of the sealing means is still effected between seal projections 54 and the adjacent sides of the jamb. It will also be observed that because of the high degree of flexibility of sealing means 42 and the relatively small area of contact between the sealing means and the corner of the jamb that the force required to close the door will be substantially less than is required to close a door having a conventional wedge type jamb wherein a relatively large surface area of a flexible seal must be compressed directly across the wedge of the jamb in order to provide a seal.

Furthermore, my sealing means is .sufiiciently flexible to compensate for misalignment or mislocation of the door jamb 20, within manufacturing tolerance limits, in construction of the trailer as illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8. In FIG. 7 it is assumed that the jamb 20 is :rnislocated toward the rear end of the trailer a distance indicated by dimension a, the correct position thereof, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, being indicated by the horizontal broken line. The broken line showing of sealing skin 56 illustrates the deformation of sealing means 42 when jamb 20 is correctly located, whereas the solid line showing of skin 56 illustrates the configuration of the seal when it is located in sealing position relative to the mislocated jamb. It will be noted that the seal deforms as required to provide three spaced and different areas of sealing, which are functionally the same as provided in FIGS. 5 and 6 when the jamb is in a correct position. In FIG. 8 it is assumed that the jamb is mislocated in a direction forwardly of the trailer a distance indicated by dimension b, the broken lines again illustrating the normal position of the jamb and sealing means. In this instance the sealing means, as shown in solid lines, assumes a deformed configuration when the door is closed which provides continuous two area sealing contact with the jamb as indicated at numerals 74 and 76, a small space 78 being present between the one side of the jamb and the adjacent projection 54 of the seal. This spacing results, of course, from the fact that the projecting end of the seal does not stretch any substantial distance toward the jamb in the direction of the space 78 under the conditions assumed in FIG. 8. Yet, a completely adequate seal is provided along areas 74 and 76 so that the jamb can be located within tolerable dimensional limits relative to the position of the door seal means without materially affecting the efficiency of the seal.

In addition, the outer skin 48 prevents scuffing and tearing of the sealing element 46 under all normal conditions of operation. However, in the event a portion of the outer skin should be damaged to an extent preventing the sealing of one of the projections 54 thereof, it will be noted that two area sealing may still be provided along the entire length of the seal, the same as in FIG. 8. Furthermore, the recessed portion 56 of the sealing means is always adapted to seal on the corner of a striker member to provide at least single area sealing, even though portions of both the projections 54 are damaged so that they do not provide a continuous seal along the transversely related surfaces of the jamb.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that I have provided a novel sealing means which is capable of deforming in operation to accommodate various door jamb or striker configurations to provide an extremely efiicient one, two or three area seal which insures the thermal integrity of the edges of the doors or other closure members which are associated with an opening for providing an insulated enclosure, and which in normal association with a corner type striker member wraps itself around the striker member to conform thereto in such a manner that spaced three area contact is elfected, the sealing areas bearing in cross-section a triangular relationship to each other.

Although I have described and illustrated a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that modifications may be made in the structure, form and relative arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that I intend to cover by the appended claims all such modifications which fall within the scope of my invention.

I claim:

1. For use with a door or other closure member having a frame and a striker or jamb construction associated therewith, a seal comprising an elongated resilient body, the said body having a configuration in cross section which includes a pair of sides disposed at an angle relative to each other and a generally U-shaped recess located between the said sides, the said recess having a pair of sides and a bight portion, the said bight portion being substantially Wider than the said recess sides and disposed substantially symmetrically relative to the said first-mentioned sides, the said first-mentioned sides and the said recess sides defining a pair of projections so that when the door is closed there is provided one, two

or three areas of sealing, depending upon the position and configuration of the jamb relative to the seal.

2. A seal as set forth in claim 1 wherein the said body includes a tough flexible outer skin.

3. A seal as set forth in claim 2 wherein the said skin includes flap elements that extend outwardly of different parts of the said body for securing the seal to the door.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS DAVID J. VVILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner.

HARRISON R. MOSELEY, Examiner.

P. C. KANNAN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. FOR USE WITH A DOOR OR OTHER CLOSURE MEMBER HAVING A FRAME AND A STRIKER OR JAMB CONSTRUCTION ASSOCIATED THEREWITH, A SEAL COMPRISING AN ELONGATED RESILIENT BODY, THE SAID BODY HAVING A CONFIGURATION IN CROSS SECTION WHICH INCLUDES A PAIR OF SIDES DISPOSED AT AN ANGLE RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER AND A GENERALLY U-SHAPED RECESS LOCATED BETWEEN THE SAID SIDES, THE SAID RECESS HAVING A PAIR OF SIDES AND A BIGHT PORTION, THE SAID BIGHT PORTION BEING SUBSTANTIALLY WIDER THAN THE SAID RECESS SIDES AND DISPOSED SUBSTANTIALLY SYMMETRICALLY RELATIVE TO THE SAID FIRST-MENTIONED SIDES, THE SAID FIRST-MENTIONED SIDES AND THE SAID RECESS SIDES DEFINING A PAIR OF PROJECTIONS SO THAT WHEN THE DOOR IS CLOSED THERE IS PROVIDED ONE, TWO OR THREE AREAS OF SEALING, DEPENDING UPON THE POSITION AND CONFIGURATION OF THE JAMB RELATIVE TO THE SEAL. 